Street-car



2 Sheets-Sheet -1. A. RAPP.

STREET GAR.

(No Model.)

Patented May 14, 1889.

Witnesses: 5f 6. K

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

A. RAPP- STREET GAB.

No. 403,214. Patented May 14, 1889.

Witnesses n. mans mwuma m her. WuhingtnmD UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC".

AUGUST RAPP, OF PULLMAN, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE M. PULLMAN, OF

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

STREET-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 403,214, dated May 14, 1889.

Application filed February 3, 1887. Serial No. 226,495. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, AUGUST RAPP, a citizen of the United States, residing at the village of Pullman, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Street-Cars, which I desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States, and of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its first object the continuation of the side windows of a streetcar up to or nearly to the roof of the car, thus adding substantially to the appearance of the car as seen from the outside, and also to the comfort of the passengers riding in the car, because of the increased amount of light; and to this end my invention consists in the several features and details of construction hereinafter set forth.

My invention further consists in a new form of car-roof which has great strength combined with simplicity of construction. WVhere strength has been required in the roofs of cars heretofore, it has been considered necessary to encumber them with braces and trussrods, both unsightly, expensive, and inconvenient. I propose to replace these devices by attaching to the carlings or other part of the roof a continuous layer of double, triple, &c., veneers or thin sheets of wood, placed with their grains crossing each other, and perforated, if desired. I find that this construction gives great strength to the framework of the car, besides being in all other respects unobjectionable. It is particularly well adapted for use in cars in which the windows are continued up to the roof, according to the former part of my present invention, since this construction dispenses with the usual panel between the top of the window and the roof, thus materially weakening the frame-work of the car; and the construction of roof proposed supplies the necessary strength to the frame-work without encumbering the car in any manner. I may, howside View of a portion of a car built according to my invention, showing the windows in elevation. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of the side of a car, and Fig. 3 is a similar section of the roof. 7

As is apparent from the drawings, the usual panel above the windows is dispensed with, a mere strip, B, being set into the longitudinal roof-beams O, behind which the top rails, D, of the windows A rest when the windows are in their elevated positions. The re-enforcement to the roof consists of a continu ous sheet of wood, G, fastened to the under sides of the carlings H and to the longitudinal roof-beams O at one margin and the longitudinal timbers I of the raised portion of the roof at the other. This sheet of wood may be of two layers or more, the layers being placed with their grains crossing each other and glued together. They may be attached to the under sides of the carlings, as shown, or to the roof in other ways. I do not limit myself to any particular means of attaching or location for this re-enforcement. Neither is it essential that its ends should be attached to the longitudinal beams O and I, respectively. Neither do I confine myself, in the use of this re-enforcement sheet of double, triple, &c., veneers, to a car constructed with a central raised deck, but claim its use, broadly, in cars of all constructions.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, 1s

1. In a street-car, the combination, with the roof structure, of a narrow longitudinal strip,

B, set edgewise into the bottom of the rooftimbers, and windows A, extended upward approximately to the roof and resting, when raised, against said strip B, substantially as set forth. v

2. A street-car having its roof-timbers reenforced by a continuous sheet or thin layer of wood attached to the under side of the carlings of the roof, the margins of said sheet being attached to the longitudinal timbers of the car, substantially as described.

AUGUST RAPP.

Witnesses:

FREDERICK O. GOODWIN, E. L. HUBER. 

